One morning toward the end of my studies of music of the African diaspora in Belize, our main instructor Emmeth Young asked me to record his djembe kan by the beach where we were staying. What’s known as a “djembe kan” is essentially an improvisational drum solo. He was especially inspired that day to do this, and though we were…
Throw it out and change it up. Literally meaning “throw it long shore,” this expression is often called out during Sambai, a Creole music and dance tradition taking place around a fire during the full moon. Attendants of this fertility dance will chant “hibam lang sho” to call for a change in the music. As drum instructor of Maroon Creole…
Leading up to the 2016 West Virginia Gubernatorial primary, Create West Virginia held an open forum and invited all the candidates for WV governor to answer challenging questions about the innovation economy. Booth Goodwin and Jeff Kessler attended to answer to this diverse and well educated panel, and the event did a lot to inform the voters, but most importantly…
The Hospice Council started a Facebook page in 2016, and I assisted with the setup process. I filled in important “About” information and tags that help with search engine optimization (SEO) as well as informing the audience of Hospice Council’s mission. I optimized images for the profile picture and cover photo which keep the organization looking clean and professional and…
I built the Wheel Decide brand to appear modern, fast, and fun. By using sharp geometric shapes (most importantly the triangle for the emblem), we mimicked the pointer of the wheel for more direct association with the infamous wheels. The design of the website is very simple, so as not to overwhelm users with unnecessary paths. The everyday user finds…
Today, any organization (no matter the budget) deserves and can afford clean graphics. I’ve come across too many firms that struggle to produce a high quality image when prompted. The fact remains—if you are spending money on print ads with outdated graphics, you are throwing money away. The market is saturated with polished brand elements, and you don’t want to…
In WVSO’s 2014-2015 season, they executed many significant organization and product changes. Several of which were controversial with their patrons and the internal administration, so it was vital for the message to be delivered as smoothly as possible. Along with help within the team, I wrote and edited most of WVSO’s press releases during the season. The most controversial, declared…
Before designing a new email template, WVSO’s emails were hardly optimized for desktop email clients let alone mobile clients. They also had a lot more text than links. By creating links to content elsewhere, WVSO emails were able to create trackable call-to-actions that connected users with more content while still maintaining simple and aesthetically pleasing design. THIS WEEKENDPay What You…
There are unfortunately many constraints in the world of orchestras with use of multimedia. More and more organizations and musicians are adopting new policies that allow the distribution of their music and videos of musicians’ performances online, but many are struggling with outdated union agreements and backward thinking administration. A small percentage of people love classical music. The only way…
When I started working with the WVSO, their website wasn’t old, but it was outdated. Not only did it have some security issues, but all sense of organization and strategy was lost with previous administration. Even more importantly, it was not mobile friendly which is unacceptable for any organization online regardless of the audience. I replaced WVSO’s old site using…